Saturday, February 21, 2009

Hina-Arare

Valentine's day is over. Now every store which sells Japanese sweets(Wagashi)is ready for Hina-Arare(small cubic rice crackers)of various flavors, and Hina-gashi(Japanese sweets made from beans and grains) for the coming Dolls Festival for girls on March 3. This is our next fun.The Dolls Festival is especially for girls and this custom has a long history. Nowadays many family with girls decorates the set of dolls with ancient costumes to wish their daughters' lifelong happiness. We decorate some Hina-arare and Hina-gashi next to the dolls for offerings.Here are some Hina-Arare and Hina-gashi which I got from the different stores. They are so adorable to look at and worth decorating by the day of March 3.I packed some of them and sent it out for my daughter studying in Kyoto.I can easily imagine how she looks when she finds all these Hina-arare in the box.Eventually women love the Dolls Festival no matter how old they get.

1 comment:

How pretty these look! I wish that we had a tradition like this in the USA, or even in my native country of Australia. Not only is this tradition about pretty dolls, I love how it can bring a mother and daughter closer together! So cute!